Greek word · G3070
Λυδία
lydia
Lydia
A female personal name. It is also the adjective 'Lydian (woman)', from Lydia, the region of western Asia Minor where her home city Thyatira lay.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A female personal name. It is also the adjective 'Lydian (woman)', from Lydia, the region of western Asia Minor where her home city Thyatira lay.
- Against the English
Greek has simply 'to Lydia'. Every English version adds 'house' (KJV and YLT in brackets to show the word was supplied). This is correct, since 16:15 explains 'come into my house and stay'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Lydia is attested as a woman's name; Horace's Odes use it, for example. Thyatira was famous for purple dye and its trade guilds, and inscriptions mention dyers' guilds there. Purple cloth was a luxury good, which suggests Lydia had real means.
Where it appears
Acts · 2
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Acts 16:14 Λυδία, Lydia,
Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.
Here: Her name. It is also the name of the region of western Asia Minor where Thyatira lay, so it may originally have meant "the Lydian woman", a kind of name often given to slaves or freedwomen after their place of origin.
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Acts 16:40 Λυδίαν· Lydia;
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house to see the brothers and encourage them. Then they left the city.
Here: The dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira, a Gentile who worshipped Israel's God (16:14). She was the first convert in Philippi and the head of a household, and she had pressed Paul's group to stay with her (16:15). Her house is where the new community meets.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.